Chapter 486 Captured alive

When the door was banged on, the owner and the employees of Yunhezhai were all angry.

They run a breakfast shop, not a midnight snack shop!

The waiter opened the door cursing and was about to scold the ignorant customer outside. But when he saw the familiar face, he immediately gulped and swallowed all the curse words. The corners of his mouth stiffly raised and he forced a smile.

"Thank you, sir. Just send someone to tell us what you want to eat, and we'll bring it to your house. Why would I bother you to come in person?"

The waiter smiled and ushered the person in. Xie Hui waved his hand and said, "I'm in a hurry. Two baskets of crab meat buns, take away."

The smile on the waiter's face almost turned into tears, and he said in a trembling voice, "We're out of crab roe. Can I make it for you tomorrow morning and send it to your house?"

The Embroidered Spring Blade was half an inch out of its sheath, and Xie Hui emphasized: "Two cages, take them away."

The waiter almost cried out "Woof!", but the shopkeeper slapped him away and said with an apologetic smile, "Yes, yes, please wait a moment, it will be ready soon."

He grabbed the waiter and ran to the back kitchen, saying in a low voice: "If you want to die, don't drag me with you." Is the commander of the Jinyiwei someone they can afford to offend?

The waiter staggered as he was pulled by him, "But we have no crab roe. Old Zhou, who delivers crabs, will come tomorrow." How can we make crab roe buns without crab roe?

"Even if I turn you into a crab today, you still have to make these crab roe buns." The shopkeeper slapped the waiter on the head. "Go and wake up Lao Zhang to work. Don't think I don't know that he's secretly hiding the crab roe. Tell him to take it all out!"

He actually kept it for himself, and Uncle Zhang didn't even give him any.

The waiter went out the back door, ran to the next street, and banged on the door of the house facing the street. "Uncle Zhang, Uncle Zhang, I'm Lei Zi. Open the door quickly, the boss wants to see you urgently!"

"Uncle Zhang!"

"Uncle Zhang!"

No one came to answer the door, so the waiter kicked it anxiously, and it opened unexpectedly.

He thought that Old Zhang had forgotten to lock the door, so he ran in and headed straight for the main room where the lights were on. "Uncle Zhang, the shopkeeper...ah!"

A scream echoed through the night sky.

In the carriage, Xiao Jingfan frowned slightly and gestured towards the darkness.

Xie Hui also ran over with a knife in hand following the sound.

Chu Liuzheng clenched his fists, [Here it comes, the murderer is here to check in! !]

Xiao Jingfan: ???

What murderer?

As soon as they entered the courtyard, they heard the sound of swords clashing, which scared the neighbors so much that they dared not say a word. Soon, the patrolling officers and soldiers came.

"Sir, there are murderers." The fellow who had almost had his head chopped off crawled to the front of the officers and pointed his finger into the yard.

The officers and soldiers looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man in a black cloak and a masked man in black fighting each other.

Under the illumination of the torches, the cloaked man was obviously no match for the masked man, and his cloak was accidentally lifted off, revealing his true face.

"Suo Sicheng!" An officer or soldier recognized the man and exclaimed in surprise.

Suo Sicheng raised his hand to block the masked man's attack and shouted, "Catch the murderer!"

"Hey! The thief is crying thief!" Xie Hui, who had been watching the excitement from the top of the wall for a long time, jumped down and joined the battle with his embroidered spring sword in hand. "You're calling him a murderer because you know who he is?"

The Embroidered Spring Blade slashed down in front of him, and Suo Sicheng was unable to dodge. He was hit on the shoulder and blood immediately spurted out. He covered his bleeding shoulder with a look of shock, anger and confusion on his face, "Master Xie, why did you chop me?"

"Catch the murderer." Xie Hui put the Embroidered Spring Knife on his shoulder and kicked Suo Sicheng into the pile of officers and soldiers.

The officers and soldiers dodged hurriedly.

Xie Hui raised his chin slightly, "What are you standing there for? Arrest him!"

"Thank you, thank you, sir." The leading officer looked at Suo Sicheng who was crying out in pain, bowed and asked, "I wonder what crime sir Suo has committed?"

"Tsk." Xie Hui curled his lips and pointed the tip of his knife at the boy next to him, "Tell them."

The officers and soldiers all looked at the waiter.

The waiter swallowed his saliva and shrank his neck and said, "There's no crab roe in the store. The shopkeeper asked me to go find Uncle Zhang. He has crab roe. I came out from the back door and came to find Uncle Zhang. I..."

Xie Hui knocked on the hilt of the knife: "Get to the point."

The guy shuddered, "I-I-I saw him..." He pointed at Suo Sicheng who was lying on the ground groaning, "Uncle Zhang was tied up in the house, and he was holding a knife and wanted to kill Uncle Zhang. When he saw me, he immediately ran towards me. Thanks to that..."

He looked around and found that the man in black who had just fought with Suo Sicheng had disappeared. He could only say, "The masked hero saved me, and then they started fighting. Then Lord Xie came, and the other officials also came."

Upon hearing this, some officers and soldiers ran into the house to check, and sure enough, they saw a middle-aged man in his forties tied up on a chair, his eyes wide open, a cloth stuffed in his mouth, and he couldn't utter a sound.

The officers and soldiers took the cloth out of his mouth, and a cry of "Help" came out of the man's throat.

The officers and soldiers cut the ropes on him with a knife and took him out.

"Uncle Zhang." The waiter hurried over to support him. "How are you?"

"No, nothing." Lao Zhang waved his hand and asked, "Where's the murderer?"

"There." The guy pointed to the person who had not yet gotten up from the ground.

Old Zhang immediately spat and said to the officer, "Sir, he is the serial killer. He just said I was the thirteenth one."

With the waiter as an eyewitness and Lao Zhang as a witness, Suo Sicheng was tied up by the officers and soldiers and sent to Shuntian Prefecture before he could even say a word in his defense.

The Shuntian prefectural governor heard the case overnight and it took him two hours to pry out the information about Suo Sicheng's accomplices from him and arrested them one by one.

The serial murder case that shocked the capital was finally solved, and the people could finally enjoy a happy new year.

On the carriage back to the palace, Chu Liuzheng ate the hot crab meat buns fresh from the pot and felt very satisfied.

*

The New Year was a busy time for the emperor, as he was busy with banquets, sacrifices and rewarding his ministers.

For Chu Liuzheng, it was a leisurely time. He ate, drank, played and had fun every day. He was also granted by the emperor to go out and celebrate the New Year with his family. His life was more fulfilling than in previous years.

But for the harem, this year was particularly quiet, and even the empress dowager did not hold a family dinner to celebrate the New Year.

After the Spring Festival, a piece of good news opened the first grand court meeting in the sixth year of Shunguang.

The Western Xia army, joined by the Dasheng army, attacked the Tatars from both sides, creating a pincer attack. A brave young general led his troops to annihilate 5,000 Tatar cavalry, captured the Tatar Khan alive, and forced the Tatars to withdraw 300 miles.

The emperor was overjoyed and ordered rewards to be given to the three armies, and to pursue the victory.

Seeing that the emperor was in a good mood, the court officials were sensible enough not to cause trouble for him, and the court meeting was held in an atmosphere of everyone being happy... but it didn't end well.

There are always some people who don't know what's best for them.

Prince Rui is such an ignorant person.

This was the first time in Prince Rui's life that he attended court, and it was Censor Wang who woke him up from his bed.

He proposed to formally implement the ban on brothels across the country and presented a complete set of implementation details, which were discussed by him, Censor Wang and a group of unknown people, and have already shown initial results in the capital.

The best examples are the two major dens of illicit entertainment in the capital.

Chunmanyuan was converted into a restaurant and is doing a booming business.

Wanfanglou was converted into a singing and dancing house, and several dim sum chefs from Jiangnan were invited to take charge. Its snacks were excellent and were quite popular among the ladies of Beijing.

After the emperor read the details - in fact, he had read them a few days ago, and today he was just going to court for a formality - he issued an order to implement it nationwide, and handed the matter over to Prince Rui and Censor Wang for supervision, and also promoted Censor Wang who had worked hard during this period.

Censor Wang was so happy that his joy could be seen from ten miles away.

(End of this chapter)